Gregg Hammann stepped down as president, chief executive and board member of Nautilus Inc., the company said this afternoon, ending a four-year turnaround effort that repeatedly failed to meet Wall Street's expectations.

The Vancouver, Wash.-based exercise equipment manufacturer named Robert Falcone, its lead independent director and former chief financial officer at Nike, as interim chief executive. Falcone is president and chief executive of Portland-based technology market research firm GCR Custom Research and serves on the board of RadioShack Corp.

Hammann joined Nautilus amid slumping profits in 2003 from Levi Strauss & Co.. In the past two years, the company has frequently missed analysts' revenue forecasts as it struggled to compete in retail stores after shifting from marketing mostly via infomercials. Last month, the company just missed reporting its first quarterly loss since going public in 1999 and cut its profit outlook for the year.

"The news is not a surprise," said Eric Wold, analyst with Merriman Curhan Ford & Co., who has called for Hammann's ouster and does not own stock in the company. "The fact that it took this long for them to do it is a surprise."

The company -- which also makes Bowflex, Schwinn Fitness and StairMaster brands -- announced Hammann's departure after the end of trading today on the New York Stock Exchange, where its shares closed at $9.23, down 49 cents, or 5 percent.